Three Kelowna athletes made their presence known at the B.C. Junior Development Pentathlon Championships last weekend in Maple Ridge.
Athletes 9 to 13 years of age competed in five events in blistering 33C temperatures to determine the province’s best all-round athletes.
The events were the sprint hurdles, high jump, shot put, long lump and the final 600m for ages 9-11, and 800m for 12-13 year-olds.
A Grade 3 student at Chute Lake Elementary, nine-year-old Lily Stroda was first in high jump, a close second in long jump, third in shot put, fifth in hurdles and fourth in the 600m. Her performance was enough to claim the overall silver.
Lily, in her first year of track, is following in her older siblings footsteps. Aaron Stroda, 21, has competed Canada the 2015 PanAm Games in the hammer throw, while Muriel, 16, won the 80 metre hurdles earlier this season at the B.C. high school championships.
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Isabella Dreger, 12, a Grade 6 Aberdeen Hall student, attending her third B.C. pentathlon championships, collected her first medal in this event, placing second overall.
Isabella won the 80m hurdles handily, and also won the long jump. After placing third in high jump and fourth in shot put, she went into the final event, the 800 metres in first place.
In the final race, Isabella finished fifth, just 2.5 seconds behind Malia Lenz (1381), who took gold overall gold by just three points over Isabella (1378).
Max Gainey, 12, a Grade 6 student at Anne McClymont, placed sixth all around out of 30 boys.
In his first ever 80m hurdle race, Max finished an impressive sixth, while taking seventh in the long jump. His best result though came in the final 800m race where he finished strong to take third place.
Max’s total of 1349 was only 36 points behind the third place winner, making this a very close competition.
All three athletes are coached by Verena Stroda.
